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Customer-facing technology is changing Britain’s bookmakers and luring a new, younger breed of punter into betting shops. Jon Bruford reports. The Internet poses a significant threat to high-street bookmakers. The big names all have profitable sportsbook-style Websites, which will rarely be financially viable for an independent. And punters can now bet by smartphone and text message too.
In the bricks-and-mortar betting world, by contrast, it can seem that comparatively little has changed in the five decades since betting shops were legalised in the UK. As Ladbrokes managing director of retail Nick Rust said recently: “We have text screens instead of boards, and live pictures, but we still have counters in nearly every shop, and taking bets hasn’t vastly changed over 50 years.”
Yet there have been some steps forward on the high street too. Inside William Hill’s shops, for example, customers can use the firm’s Price Finder to find odds on a race or match that day; if the shop’s flat-screen TVs are all showing odds on the Champions League final but you want to know the prices for the 3:20 at Catterick, this 20-year-old technology will provide that information.
And in a more recent development, the chain is also using touchscreen self-service terminals, which are the betting shop’s equivalent of self-service checkouts at the supermarket. They don’t tie up any staff time, they’re quick, they’re anonymous, and you don’t have to queue. Perfect for the tech-savvy customer, the younger breed which bookmakers are now finding success in luring through the doors.
But while William Hill has invested heavily in technology – and in fact enjoyed an incredible 90 percent growth in its sportsbook in 2010 alone, after engaging Playtech to transform its offering – it have not moved away from one of the fundamentals: people.
Technology such as the systems we survey in this feature can be great, but if a shop is to survive anywhere, it must become part of the fabric of the community it hopes to serve, and William Hill is investing in training staff to give a better service to customers so they can build a relationship and keep them returning. Fostering brand awareness via the Web, smartphone and laptop is one thing, but without a rewarding customer experience when they actually enter your location, all the branding in the world is worthless.
